


Deleted Scenes, Take Two

by JessicaMDawn



Series: The Sword in the Stone [5]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, extra scenes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-19
Updated: 2016-02-19
Packaged: 2018-05-21 21:57:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6059521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JessicaMDawn/pseuds/JessicaMDawn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just like last time, here are some 'Deleted Scenes' from throughout "The Once and Future King." They're from all over the series, so if you're confused, just reference the chapter numbers provided. These are scenes that come within the previous story's adventures, so reading "The Once and Future King" is required to understand what is going on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 8x01 - Knights wonder at Merlin during the Spring Festival

**Author's Note:**

> Just like for The Sword in the Stone, here are some 'deleted' scenes from The Once and Future King. They weren't really 'deleted' scenes, as they were written after the series was completed. These are, instead (and as they were last time), scenes people wanted to see that I did not include in the original chapters.
> 
> The first number is what part it was 'deleted' from (1 – Worst Wishes, 7 – The Green Knight, etc. etc.) and the second number is just there to make it look like an episode and because there are two for chapter twelve.

The Spring Festival had blazed into the early hours of the following morning, and even at midday there was smoke in the sky from the bonfire. There was no official training today for the knights – Arthur was smart enough to know that wasn't going to happen – so they were free to stumble about and recover from the party.

Many of them ended up in the taverns for food and drink so that they wouldn't have to fend for themselves.

"That was the most fun I think I've ever had at a spring festival," Luned commented, dipping his bread into the small bowl of soup he'd ordered. Luned seemed to be the only one not at least mildly hung over or exhausted, and also appeared to have eaten before meeting the other knights at the tavern since he wasn't hungry.

"I don't think so," Gaheris noted. "You're too chipper this morning to have enjoyed the festival the way it should be enjoyed."

Luned just shook his head with a secretive smile and ate his bread.

Around the table with him were Sirs Gaheris, Lamorak, Pelleas, and Tristan. Lamorak, though the biggest in muscles of their group, also seemed to be fairing the worst this morning. He glumly ate his porridge and kept covering his eyes with his free hand like the mere fact that he was awake was causing him pain. Pelleas and Tristan, as well as Gaheris, were doing much better, but all showed signs of the events of the night before and weariness around their eyes and mouths and in how they held themselves.

"I'm glad Arthur didn't make us hold drills today," Tristan noted. "I fear many of us would have impaled ourselves on our own training swords."

The others nodded in agreement with grimaces. Pelleas stopped tearing his own bread into tiny pieces and frowned. "It's too bad though," he said. "That the king couldn't enjoy the festival like the rest of us."

"I'm sure he found some way to entertain himself," Lamorak rumbled, wincing at the sound of his own voice.

"Perhaps his sweet maiden Guinevere visited him instead," Gaheris offered.

Tristan shook his head and dipped his bread in his wine. "She spent last evening with Lancelot," he informed the group. "They didn't part until early in the morning, when he left her, alone, at her home to sleep."

Pelleas let out a low whistle. "Poor Arthur. Does he know?"

"Probably," Gaheris said. "The question is whether he cares and how it'll affect things between him and Lancelot, or Lancelot and the rest of us."

Luned huffed a laugh. "I'm sure we'll be fine. Tristan said she slept alone, so it's not like anything untoward is happening. Guinevere can spend her time as she pleases, and anyway it wasn't like she could spend it with the king, stuck up in the castle. It's good that she has someone else she can spend time with, for fun if not for marriage."

For a few moments no one else spoke and Luned began to color in the cheeks. Tristan finished his wine and bread and moved on to his cheese, while Gaheris bit into the poultry he'd decided would help settle his stomach – despite the others not being so sure.

"Speaking of not being able to spend time with the king," Pelleas broke the silence. "Did any of you see Merlin last night? I'm not sure I've ever seen him look so lost."

Gaheris chuckled. "Now there's a romance fit for gossip," he said with a wave of his chicken toward the others. "Poor servant Merlin and his golden king."

Tristan frowned. "What's poor about it?" he asked, his voice smooth and calm but still resonating displeasure at the edges.

Lamorak downed a cup of watered down wine loudly.

"Our king is already halfway to marrying a servant girl, and his manservant is watching this all unfold, in fact helping it along, even though it's bloody obvious to anyone with eyes that he wants into the king's bed clothes," Gaheris explained.

Now Luned was frowning too. "I don't think it's as simple as bed clothes, Gaheris," he said. "I also think I prefer you drunk to hung over."

Gaheris waved him off and took a big chunk of meat from the pile of chicken on his plate. Luned rather hoped it made him sick.

"It is sad," Tristan admitted after swallowing another piece of cheese. "But not poor. It's never poor to love, even if that love is destined for another."

The table was tense and heavy now, everyone wondering what experience Tristan was referring to in his life and what they were meant to say to that. Who had Tristan loved and lost to another? Finally, Lamorak mustered the strength to move the topic.

He cleared his throat. "I saw Merlin last night with a farm hand," he offered, though it made his head hurt.

"No," Pelleas gasped. "When? How long were they together? Did anything happen?"

Luned muttered about 'hopeless gossips' but only finished off his soup with the last of his bread and didn't stop the conversation.

Lamorak shrugged. "After the bonfire was lit sometime. Awhile, I guess. I don't know."

Now Gaheris poked Luned in the arm with a chicken bone. "About more than bed clothes, eh?" he asked. "Still so sure, Luned?"

Luned smacked his arm away with little effort and rolled his eyes. "As a matter of fact, I am. It's the same as with Guinevere. Arthur wasn't there. Neither of them have to be alone just because the one they care for is absent. Honestly, it's as if you expect everyone to shut themselves indoors unless it's convenient."

Tristan laid a hand on Luned's shoulder, opposite to where Gaheris sat. When he had Luned's attention, he smiled. "I agree. I don't think we have anything to question on the part of Merlin and Arthur's feelings."

There was a beat of quiet before Luned's eyes widened a bit. "You mean-?"

Tristan nodded. "I do. But I've no proof to offer you. We'll merely have to wait and see which way the scales of fate tip."

Lamorak closed his eyes. "To be back in bed with the beauty I had last night," he murmured.

Gaheris grinned. "So go. Get fussed over by your lady. You don't gotta sit around with us petty men if you've got somewhere better to be."

Luned laughed once. "Then I don't know why I'm ever in your presence," he teased. "I would always rather be with Laudine than the rest of you lousy lot."

They all laughed at that, admitting to the truth that being with a lover was better than sitting around hung over with a few of their fellow knights. Tristan glanced toward the door just in time to see Merlin walk by, though none of the others noticed him and he didn't come inside.

It was just a thought, but Merlin had powerful magic, and Arthur appeared aware of that. He'd repealed the ban on magic. He and Merlin seemed closer than ever when Tristan arrived for the coronation. Tristan had seen the way Merlin kissed that farm hand last night, the teasing way they interacted, the way the farm hand held himself like a noble rather than a commoner. It was possible that the farm hand was actually Arthur; that somehow Merlin had hidden the truth from their eyes; that Merlin had indeed spent the evening with the one he cared about most, and no one knew it.

Arthur seemed to care a great deal for Guinevere, but maybe there was hope for Merlin's love story where Tristan's had failed.


	2. 11x01 – Luke ends up in the stocks

Despite having sat in the royal pavilion at the knighting tournament, and despite the fact that she'd been courted by not one, but two knights of Camelot (and some would argue more than that), Guinevere still lived in the same house in the inner town that she had grown up in with her father and Elyan. So she still had to walk to the castle each morning for work.

That meant she also still passed the stocks and saw the poor souls that had done some smaller misdeed and earned time pelted with fruit rather than a fine or jail time.

"Luke?" she gasped when she saw the teen locked in the wooden device.

He lifted his head at the call, his eyes widening when he saw her. "Oh!" He tried to move his arms enough to clean the bits of fruit from his face but there was no chance that they would reach.

Gwen moved to stand beside him, knowing no one would throw more produce while she stood in the way. "What happened that you ended up in the stocks?" she asked in concern.

Luke scowled. "I damaged Arthur's practice sword while polishing it," he admitted, sounding bitter about it. "But it's not like I did it on purpose."

"I don't think anyone would have done that on purpose," Gwen said. "How did you damage it?"

Sighing, Luke said, "Merlin said he used to polish it with magic while he studied, so I looked up a spell and gave it a shot. But I ended up dulling one side and breaking the end off." When Gwen gasped he groaned. "I know. I don't even understand how that happened!"

Gwen couldn't help but smile a little, though she hid it from Luke behind her hands. He was pouting and it was adorable. She felt bad that he was in the stocks, but Merlin had ended up in the stocks before he ever worked for Arthur and it had been a common occurrence for months after he started. Merlin's apprentice following in his footsteps felt like a sort of fate.

"Well, I don't think Merlin was always so good with his spells either," Gwen allowed, clearing her throat. "He also spent a lot of time where you are now, so think of it as a…a learning experience."

Luke huffed. "Merlin could break out of these stupid stocks with barely a thought," he countered.

In response, Gwen merely said, "And yet he never did." She smiled when Luke only stared back at her silently. "Think about that while you're here, perhaps."

She only made it a few steps away before a tomato splattered on Luke's cheek, causing him to cry out in surprise and disgust. Gwen turned to him with a small gasp. She hadn't expected it to start up again so soon.

"And…maybe don't use spells on Arthur's things before you practice them first," she suggested, seeing more children arriving with buckets of rotten food to toss at the poor imprisoned warlock.

Luke spit out the tomato seed that had gotten in his mouth. "Yeah, now you tell me." He shut his eyes. "Only five more hours. Only five more hours."

He only stopped repeating that mantra when the first cabbage half struck him, and then Gwen left him to his consequence. She may understand why he was there and what purpose the sentence served, but that didn't mean she enjoyed watching people she knew endure it. She'd talk to Merlin, who would talk to Arthur, about getting Luke released early.


	3. 12x01 – Gaius learns Luned's secret

Gaius' chambers were in chaos after the battle with the sorcerers. Merlin had been brought up by Arthur personally, unconscious. Gaius had checked him over but found no wounds, and had to assume that whatever was wrong with him was either magical or due to exhaustion. When Arthur told him what Merlin had done to the sorcerers, mixed with what Gaius had seen cover the city, he decided on exhaustion.

Merlin had woken up while Gaius and Luke were finishing up bandaging Bors' legs. He'd jumped to help, as though he hadn't just been unconscious two seconds before, and they had slaved over the wound in Dinadan's side. Morgana stopped by long enough to ask where the injured sorcerers were being kept, then stole half of the medical supplies Gaius had prepared and escaped. Merlin took some of what was left in order to make a cream to counteract the spell cast on Griflet that turned his body momentarily to stone, and then he left as well to administer it.

When Lanceot stumbled in almost ten minutes later, Luned staggering under his arm, both of them with scorched and bent armor, Gaius was preparing more supplies with Luke.

"Good heavens!" Gaius cried. "What happened?"

Lancelot grunted as he half dragged Luned into the room. "He was hit by a fire spell during the battle. I barely got it to stop before we were too injured to continue."

"Why didn't you come up before?" Gaius tutted, already clearing off the table as best he could so Lancelot could lay Luned on it.

"He didn't want to come," Lancelot explained, looking as flummoxed by the idea as Gaius felt.

Luned was groaning on the table, obviously in terrible pain, but conscious. He watched the two adult men in the room with eyes that were glazed with pain but alert and wary.

"Well you're here now," Gaius said, deciding it wasn't worth wasting the time to fight when their wounds were so bad. "Luke, help me get their armor off so we can start applying the salves."

"No," Luned protested, his hands covering the clasps of his breastplate.

Luke was already working on Lancelot's armor, the metal creaking and whining as it came roughly off his body. For his part, Lancelot barely groaned. Gaius reached for Luned's gauntlet to start with.

Everyone in the room was startled when Luned shouted, "No!" and rolled off the table to duck behind it, as if for protection.

Once Gaius had gotten over his shock, he sighed. "If this is some kind of sentiment for your armor, boy, then it is foolish. Arthur will have new armor made for you as soon as you are well enough to get to the blacksmith."

"Luned," Lancelot said, gentler than the doctor. "You're safe here. The battle's over. You're injured. Let Gaius have a look?" he suggested.

Luned's hair could be seen over the edge of the table but not his face. He shook his head, earning him a pang of pain from his whole body, and groaned.

With a 'harrumph', Gaius turned to Lancelot's armor-less body. "Then we'll start with you."

Lancelot was a very cooperative patient. They had to cut some of his clothing from his body and some of it stuck to him painfully due to the heat of the fire spell. If Lancelot had only been in the path of the spell for a moment and been hurt this badly, then Gaius desperately needed to see to Luned. If only the boy would let him!

As soon as the healing salves touched Lancelot's wounds, he let out deep sighs of contentment. He let them apply and rub the ointment into his wounds for almost twelve minutes without one word of protest.

"Alright then, you're fine for now," Gaius said at length. "You'll need the salve reapplied daily, though not in such generous amounts as we used today. If you'd like, you can come see me here and I'll apply it, or you can take some with you and get another to apply it for you."

Lancelot left with a jar of salve and a worried look at the table. Gaius got him to leave only by giving endless assurances that Luned would be fine. Then Gaius sent Luke away to help Morgana with the sorcerers.

"I can manage one burn patient alone. I'm not that old yet," he insisted.

Luke shrugged, but it was too casual to hide his desire to get out of there. He hated being Gaius' assistant more than Merlin ever had. He would not be a healer when he got older. "If you insist," he said, and then darted from the room.

Sometimes Gaius worried about the boy. Then again, he had worried about Merlin from the day he met him. The similarities kept catching Gaius by surprise though. Shaking his head, the elderly man moved to approach Luned.

"Your turn, Luned, and don't fight me on it," he said as he rounded the table. "Oh."

Luned was unconscious against the side of the table. With a small groan, Gaius knelt down next to the boy. He was too heavy for Gaius to lift alone, even with magic, as long as he was wearing his armor. Gaius simply wasn't strong enough for that anymore. So he began to unhook the buckles and ties that held Luned's armor in place.

The gauntlet came off easily enough, but the vambrace had to be pried away with more magic than physical strength. Gaius actually worried that it would wake Luned, when the young man groaned and shifted, and they would have to argue about the armor again.

"I'm too old for this," Gaius muttered to himself as he stared at the breastplate, chainmail, and gambeson. He took a deep breath, then another, and held his hand out toward Luned. "Cléofan."

The weak pulse of magic rolled through him and out toward the knight. Before Gaius' eyes, the metal began to split slowly into pieces and fall away from Luned's body. Links in the chainmail tore like wet paper. The breastplate broke into three parts and clattered to the ground. The gambeson's stitching pulled apart like so much morning fog in the sun.

Before the magic could injure Luned on accident, Gaius stopped it. He went about tearing the gambeson away by hand for the last few strings, letting it join the dismantled armor on the floor. But instead of being faced with a burned chest, Gaius found himself face to face with another piece of clothing.

"What's this?" he asked, reaching forward to inspect it. It looked like a tunic, but fitted as if to mirror Luned's very skin, compressing it even. The elderly physician had never seen clothing like this before.

He began to lift it from the skin, slowly pulling it up and maneuvering Luned's arms so he could remove the garment entirely. Luned gave another groan, this one sounding far more awake.

"What happened?" Luned asked blearily.

Gaius finished tugging the strange shirt, badly burned on the right side like the rest of Luned's body, from over Luned's arms. "You lost consciousn-Oh my," he cut off when he lowered his eyes back to Luned's body.

Lying before him was the chest of a woman. Luned looked at Gaius with those same pain laden eyes for a moment in confusion. Then something must have clicked – a lack of pressure on her chest, the shirt in Gaius' hands, the direction he was looking, cold air upon her skin – because Luned's eyes widened and she quickly threw her arms over her chest and rolled so that her back was facing Gaius.

"Don't!" she hissed. "I told you don't."

"You're a woman," Gaius managed.

Luned peeked at him over her shoulder, just one bright green eye surrounded by copper hair, dirt, and scratches. She nodded. "Did anyone see?"

Gaius shook his head, which seemed to relieve her. "But they soon will. Well, not physically _see_ see, but they'll know your true gender," he said.

Again Luned grew excited. She faced Gaius again, one hand covering her breasts and the other reaching out for his sleeve.

"You can't," she said. "You can't tell anyone. Please. Gaius, I beg of you, do not reveal me."

Gaius huffed. "I must. You lied to the king. I am duty bound to tell him. Besides that, you're just a girl – Too young and too vulnerable to be going into battles like the one we had today."

It was like a switch was flipped. Luned's eyes grew as sharp as daggers, all pain disappearing in an instant. When she spoke, her voice was firm and hard. "I am a knight."

Gaius sighed. "I know you _want_ to be a knight, my dear. But the truth is-"

"I am a knight," Luned interrupted. "I've passed every test. I've been through every training. I am a knight, physician, and you will not ruin me."

Her tone brokered no argument, but still Gaius hesitated. She was a young woman. It was not her place to be in battle, no matter what the Lady Morgana liked to do in her spare time. What if she got hurt?

Then Gaius realized that Luned's arms were shaking. He never would have noticed except that one of them held his sleeve and thus made his clothing shift against his arm. His thoughts broken, Gaius' gaze moved down to where Luned's other arm was covering her chest, and then to the burns all over her body.

Hurt. She was already hurt.

He sighed again and reached out to cup her cheeks. "Come, my dear. Let's treat those burns."

She seemed determined not to show weakness and barely let out a hiss of pain or pleasure the entire time Gaius was tending to her wounds. He could tell that the burns on most of her body would heal with barely a memory. However, the burns on her right side, especially near her hip, would leave lasting scars. Gaius could only suppose that was where the spell had hit, and then crawled up and over her body like weeds.

The silence was deafening.

Just as the last of the salve was applied, there was a knock on the door. "Excuse the intrusion," came a lilting voice.

"Laudine," Luned said quietly. "She can come in."

Gaius frowned but dutifully called, "Enter!"

"I heard that Luned had been hurt," Laudine said as she entered the room. Her hands then flew to her mouth at the sight of the injuries, or perhaps Luned's near naked form, or both. "Luned!" she said through her fingers.

Luned gave a weak smile. "Close the door, would you, Laudine?"

She hurried to do so, flipping the lock, before rushing the few steps between her and the bed. "Will you be alright?"

It was clear from her voice that she wasn't only talking about the injuries. Her eyes flickered over every mark on Luned's body, but also toward Gaius, with concealed nervousness. Luned took her hand, running her fingers soothingly over Laudine's, and then leveled her gaze on Gaius. Any softness that had been in those eyes when looking upon Laudine turned to dust when she looked at him.

"I'll be fine. Won't I, doctor?"

Under the combined weight of both Luned's steely gaze and Laudine's worried one, Gaius felt his resolve weaken. "I should tell the king," he said. "More than that, _you_ should tell him."

Luned nodded. "I will. Not soon, I admit, but I will. When he cannot doubt my resolve or my skills, I will tell him. Then I will deal with the consequences."

Gaius sighed. He really was too old for this. After a moment's silence, he proceeded to give Laudine and Luned the same care instructions he'd given to Lancelot, though Luned's side would require more salve than Lancelot's burns. His clinical words released much of the tension in the room as the two women correctly surmised that, at least for now, Gaius would keep their secret.

Still, Gaius could not forget that Luned was a woman. If she would not reveal herself to Arthur soon, it would fall to Gaius to do so for her.


	4. 12x02 – Luke is given the night (and day) off

Luke had just finished setting Arthur's table for dinner – two meals, for him and for Merlin, as usual – when the king stopped writing at his desk and let out a relieved breath.

"Too much work writing your own letters, sire?" Luke asked with a smirk.

It was a badly kept secret that Merlin did most of the speech and letter writing for the king, though everyone pretended they didn't know. Merlin was the king's right hand and, even if he signed the work as himself rather than Arthur, people would listen to him as they would the king.

Arthur frowned. "No. But I've never enjoyed pandering to the desires of spoiled lordlings. They get offended by everything."

He stood from his desk and walked over to the table, examining the food while Luke moved to turn down the bed for the night. There was quiet the entire time he worked. Luke didn't look over at the king, so he didn't know what had his attention so captured, but then again they'd never been chatty. Merlin might have been happy to exchange wit with the future king of Camelot, but Luke and Arthur weren't close enough for him to take that much freedom. Sometimes he saw that Arthur was waiting for some snarky comeback from him, and sometimes he gave it, but even when he did it didn't make the king look overly excited or happy like Luke imagined it did when Merlin was the one retorting.

"Luke," Arthur began when Luke was done with the bed. "You're dismissed after you're done there."

Luke blinked owlishly at him for a moment. "But the fireplace and the candles? Your dishes?"

Arthur waved his concerns away. "Leave them. Merlin can handle it. Take the rest of the night off," he said. "In fact, Luke, I don't want to see you in here again until at least noon tomorrow."

Now Luke was thoroughly confused. "Noon?" he blanched. "What about the knights' training or the council meeting?"

A frown was beginning to etch itself across Arthur's face at all of Luke's pestering. "Leon can handle the training and I've already spoken with the council." A little up twitch of his lips. "Besides, it'll be hard to conduct a council meeting when two of its key members are unavailable."

Suddenly the truth hit Luke like a sack of potatoes. He was glad he wasn't touching the bed anymore, because he would've ruined the arrangement with the involuntary jerk backwards he made.

"Oh the gods," Luke gasped. "You're going to-"

"Well there's no need to get into specifics," Arthur interrupted, and at least his cheeks seemed a little pink at talking about it with his manservant. Not that that really gave Luke any comfort. He was too busy trying _not_ to imagine the state the bed would be in tomorrow and what that meant would have happened during the night and why they would need until midday to recover and-

"I did not need to know about that," Luke let out faintly. "I really really didn't need to know."

Arthur shrugged. "You kept asking questions instead of simply accepting the time off, so you really only have yourself to blame." He picked up a grape from off his plate. "In any case, Merlin should be here shortly. I only assumed that if a little clothed bed sharing got you so uncomfortable that you might thank me for sparing you the sight of-"

"For the love of the Old Religion, stop talking!" Luke snapped out as fast as he could, covering his ears with his hands. "I've heard enough."

The king was almost outright laughing at him now, only a hand against his mouth preventing the sounds from escaping. Luke glared at him and headed for the door with his hands still over his ears.

"You're an evil man," Luke grumbled. "I don't know what he sees in you."

There wasn't even a knock on the door before it opened, revealing Merlin in all his usual subtle glory. Luke had to pull his hands down to stop the door from smacking him in the face.

"Oh, Luke," Merlin let out. "Sorry. I didn't know you were standing there."

Sadly, the sight of his other master only made the images in Luke's head more vibrant, now that he didn't have to rely on memory to fill in the spaces where Merlin fit. His face exploded into red and heat.

"It's fine. Absolutely fine. Have a nice- Goodnight."

He scampered out of the room to the sound of King Arthur's chuckles and Merlin's confused but reproachful, "What did you do this time, Arthur?"

Now to search Merlin's books for a memory wiping spell. He didn't want to know. He _really_ didn't want to know.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> Unless inspiration happens to strike for another 'deleted scene,' this is it. The Sword in the Stone 'verse is finally complete. I hope you've enjoyed the ride as much as I have. Thank you for all of your feedback and love. I love you all too!


End file.
